[Kosmos]

If so, what were your experiences?

[AndroidLight]

I had it once or twice a few months ago, a few months apart. I don't recall it all that vividly though, and for some reason never gave much thought to it and just thought it was a dream-like thing. I think it was probably because I wasn't conscious for very long during it, but it's weird to think that this could occur again and again. It's weird.

[forgetamine]

Yes I've had it a few times and it was really scary every single time. I feel like I'm awake but I'm dreaming, I can't move, my body feels numb, I try to scream but I can't and if I open my eyes sometimes I see things. It only lasts for about 10 to 20 seconds but it's a terrifying experience for me every time.

[Spontogical]

Just had it last night.

Feels like there is some foreign being tying you down to put things into perspective. It's like you're awake and asleep at the same time. Mind is awake but body is asleep quite terrifying. But I'm used to it now, I can actually pretty much control it/eliminate it at will.

Seems like watching those episodes of Dragon Ball Z did have some use afterall

[Pitt1988]

Worst one I had was in an old house. My bed used to face the window and I opened my eyes and could see someone in my room, looking out the window. Couldn't move at all, speak or anything then he/it turned round really quick and moved towards me in a sort of ring girl type way, sort of how people look in strobe lights. He got round down, face to face with me. All I could do was close my eyes, nothing else. Pretty scary at the time like!

[hajinator]

Its so weird, I couldn't move or speak and I tried to scream but couldn't. I just went to sleep like ten seconds later though

[Faith01]

Happened so many years ago, I wanted to wake up but couldn't, my sisters were in the room talking and I wanted to join in but couldn't.

[Beige_Angel]

Well I couldn't describe one experience because I've gotten it quite regularly since I was a kid so there have been to many of them to pick one. However with or without hallucinations I generally get tingling/vibrations throughout my body and often feel like my arms are locked across my body, although once I can move again they often turn out to have been by my sides throughout. I also usually get a whooshing sound in my ears and sometimes feel cold throughout my body even though I'm generally snug under my covers.

I have gotten sleep paralysis whilst not in bed though, I once had it whilst sat in an armchair round my aunts, it was annoying because I could see and hear everything going on in the room but none of them knew it was happening

[Swi1ch]

I get both paralysis on wake and on sleep.

On wake is more scary for me now. I wake up, and can't move. Can't scream, can't open my eyes. The only way to help it pass is to resist fighting it and just relax until I pass out, which is incredibly difficult.

On sleep is the hallucination area. I know it's coming because i'll be in that half-asleep state and suddenly feel like i'm falling, or I hear thundering roars like a train is passing right past my head. Then there's a variety of things that happen. Sometimes I can 'see', but the world will be distorted and shivering and not quite right, and people who I can see but can't at the same time, like something you see out of the corner of your eye, try to drag me out of bed, or sit on my chest. Sometimes I see space, then someone will walk up to me who is completely deformed and I will realise that it's not possible, and then I will fall through space for eternity. One time I could see only blackness, but it was somehow also in 3D, like a dome, and after a while a small port hole opened in the blackness and an eye peered out through it at me, and I fell again. Most times now, it's a series of bizarre illusions that I identify as impossible, which triggers a falling sensation and I 'fall' into a new illusion, until I either wake up or pass out. Occasionally I 'fall' into a lucid dream, the paralysis leaves but in my mind I feel the same.

[StezZ]

I had it once... extremely weird/ scary. I remember lying there trying to move -****ting myself- then it passed. Phew, those few seconds were pretty intense.

[Halogenation]

It has only happened once to me, for maybe 5 seconds, and it was a week ago.

I'm pretty sure it was when I went to bed at the unusually extremely-late 3am. At that late, you pretty much fall asleep instantly and enter a rather 'lagged' sleep. Anyway, long story short, all I can remember is feeling like I had transistioned from a dream to reality where there was an almighty howling wind blowing from my window that was slamming my door shut and open in a violent manner. It felt very real and I couldn't open my eyes. It was sort of like a hybrid of reality and dreaming, like I was stuck in the usually automatically-passed border between the two. I couldn't move, I couldn't even open my eyes, after feeling very scared and paralysed for a few seconds, I instinctively decided to hold my breath as if to calm myself, and suprisingly that enabled me to open my eyes. What's funny is that my window wasn't even open, and the door was shut. also interesting is that only a few days prior did I think about the fact that often a dream's climax features a sound/event that takes place in reality. i.e. I've often had dreams where something extreme has happened, and a sound from the real world has accompanied it (i.e. someone shouting, or an object falling, making a loud bang). I thought that the violent door opening/closing sounds were provoked potentially by my dog opening one of my brother's doors (it's rather loud, if you've ever seen a dog open a door, clawing at the handle!)

[a_certain_nobody]

I've had it a few times, it's weird. As others have said, it's like being in a weird state between sleeping and waking. It's a mixture of logical, conscious thinking and paralysis/hallucination eg. "I know I'm definitely lying in my bed, in my room, the window and door are shut. So who/what the hell is that approaching my bed?"
I can't move or speak, I often try and shout for help but I can't, and I often hallucinate the presence of something malevolent near my bed/ pinning me down, but I know I'm not asleep.

It happens to me most after sleep deprivation and when I'm sleeping on my back.

I heard it's because in the REM phase your muscles are blocked so that you don't move and hurt yourself as you dream, and sleep paralysis can occasionally happen as you come out of that phase.

[Aesc]

I've had it once or twice that I can recall, about a month ago, where I thought I was moving my arms and then realised they weren't moving at all, accompanied by the certainty that there were demons coming for me, this feeling sort of built and built, and I had to do something to keep them away or keep myself safe (the first time I was trying to wrap my hands around the bedstead so they couldn't pull me away). At first didn't realise what it was because I hadn't realised I was asleep (either no dreams or those dreams where you just continue your thoughts, I think). I found it very interesting, although obviously only once I'd woken up and turned on the light.

[Elle408]

I get it all the time, less so now as I figured out what triggers it (for me it's waking and going back to sleep, snoozing if you like, if I do that, 9 times out of 10, i'll have an episode of paralysis, so now, when I wake, I just get up for the day first time!)

I don't experience hallucinations and never have, I just can't move anything. Even though I know what it is it still scares me silly as I panic that I might stop breathing or choke or something, I also get worried that a family member might see my eyes open and try to communicate with me and I won't be able to respond and they'll think I'm dead or hurt. I tend to just focus on my hand and start willing it to move, then when it does the panic subsides a little and eventually the rest of me will move. Then I have to get up and move about, just to reassure myself that everything is working as it should.

[Zenomorph]

(Original post by Spontogical)
Just had it last night.

Feels like there is some foreign being tying you down to put things into perspective. It's like you're awake and asleep at the same time. Mind is awake but body is asleep quite terrifying. But I'm used to it now, I can actually pretty much control it/eliminate it at will.

Seems like watching those episodes of Dragon Ball Z did have some use afterall

How ?

[Spontogical]

(Original post by Zenomorph)
How ?

Well the thing is that when it happens.. I'm always aware of it, but because it happens so frequently.. I'm no longer scared. It usually occurs after/during bad dreams though.

[Stressworthy]

Yes. It's happened to me before but the most vivid time was quite recently. I dreamt (but of course it felt very real) that two people had come into my room and were sat on my bed. Previously, I'd imagine that it was my friends coming into my room at our student house or something so wouldn't be as scary, but this was two strangers in my house. I tried to shout, move my head or move something, but nothing was happening. It felt like it went on for an eternity - terrifying for however long it lasted. But yeah, sounds like that's the standard emotions everyone feels. And for the user who said that waking up then going back to sleep triggers it, it does seem that that's when it happens to me as well.

[King Kebab]

I have. It is really scary. I thought I died

[concubine]

I get it often.

I enjoy it.


It's reassuring to know that you are capable of feeling fear.

[BLineDisaster]

For me it's usually Monday morning paralysis, right when my alarm clock sounds.

This was posted from The Student Room's Android App on my GT-I9300